By John Johnson Chess is such serious business in Eastern Europe that Armenia requires all kids starting at age 6 to play the game in school. The US should do the same, argues Alex Berezow at Pacific Standard . He likes the idea for all the reasons you’d imagine: The game sharpens young minds…
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166370/lets-make-kids-play-chess-in-school.html
Armenia‘s National Security Agency has accused a former presidential contender of being behind the shooting of another fringe candidate ahead of last month’s election.
A spokesman for the agency, Artsvin Bagramian, said Wednesday that Vardan Sedrakian has been arrested. The Jan. 31 attack left Paruir Airikian wounded in the shoulder.
The attack threatened to cause the vote to be postponed, but it was held as planned and the incumbent president, Serge Sarkisian, won easily with nearly 59 percent of the vote.
Two other men accused in the attack were arrested last month. Sedrakian said at the time that he knew the men, whom he had hired to renovate his apartment.
Two presidential candidates in Armenia who lost to the incumbent are contesting the election results, saying they were unfair.
President Serge Sarkisian easily won a second five-year term in the Feb. 18 election with nearly 59 percent of the vote. American-born Raffi Hovanessian, who finished second with 37 percent, filed an appeal Monday in the Constitutional Court demanding the vote results be annulled.
Hovanessian, Armenia‘s first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, has called the election rigged, and declared himself the genuine winner. His supporters have held a series of rallies to back his demands.
Another of Sarkisian’s six rivals, Andrias Gukasian, also contested the results Monday.
International monitors said the election “lacked competition,” but noted improvements compared to the previous poll.
A violent outburst by Armenia supporters in the French parliament building has left two Azerbaijanis injured and drawn condemnation by French authorities.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict since 1988 over the disputed Caucasus Mountains territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The incident happened Tuesday in the National Assembly in Paris, during a conference commemorating the anniversary of violence against Armenians in 1988.
The two Azerbaijanis, a man and a woman, tried to interrupt the conference, saying they wanted to commemorate the anniversary of a 1992 massacre of Azerbaijanis.
The Azerbaijani Embassy in Paris says the two were attacked and beaten by some of the pro-Armenia participants.
France’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it “regrets and condemns” the acts of violence committed inside the National Assembly.
About 5,000 supporters of a presidential candidate in Armenia, who has lost to the incumbent, have protested the election results.
President Serge Sarkisian easily won a second five-year term in Monday’s vote, getting nearly 59 percent of the vote. The closest of his six rivals, American-born Raffi Hovanessian, polled 37 percent.
Hovanessian, Armenia‘s first foreign minister after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, has called the election unfair and rigged, and declared himself the genuine winner.
On Wednesday, about 5,000 of his supporters gathered in the capital to back Hovanessian’s demands. Hovanessian challenged the incumbent to come to the square in Yerevan, and some of his followers pledged to remain there through the night.
International monitors said the election “lacked competition,” but noted improvements compared to the previous poll.
Officials in Armenia say that incumbent President Serge Sarkisian has been re-elected in a national election.
The country’s Central Election Commission said Tuesday morning that early results show Sarkisian is garnering nearly 59 percent of the vote. The closest of his six rivals, American-born Raffi Hovanessian, who was post-Soviet Armenia‘s first foreign minister, has 37 percent of the vote. Votes from all polling stations have been counted but these are still preliminary results.
Just over 60 percent of Armenia‘s 2.5 million eligible voters cast ballots in Monday’s election, according to election officials.
Sarkisian, who has overseen a modest economic recovery, appears to be running strongly enough to avoid a runoff which would be required if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote.
The campaign for Armenia‘s presidential election lasted only a month, but packed drama into the short time that included the shooting of one candidate and another contender going on hunger strike.
For all that, incumbent Serge Sarkisian is widely expected to cruise through Monday’s voting easily, likely getting the 50 percent plus one vote tally necessary to avoid a second round. Seven other candidates are on the ballot.
Sarkisian’s first term in 2008 started traumatically. Within weeks of his election, clashes between police and supporters of Sarkisian’s vanquished challenger Lev Ter-Petrosian left 10 people dead and more than 250 injured.
But Sarkisian adroitly reduced tensions by talking with critics and allowing opposition protests. The next year, the parliament granted a sweeping amnesty to hundreds of people who had been arrested in the post-election violence.
He also has overseen a return to economic growth after years of stagnation, although the former Soviet republic still suffers from widespread poverty. World Bank figures for 2010, the most recent year tallied, show nearly 36 percent of the country living below the national poverty line. Average wages are about $300 a month.
The landlocked country’s economy is hobbled by the longstanding closure of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey, both connected with the occupation by Armenian troops and ethnic Armenian local forces of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. That frozen conflict shows no signs of imminent resolution despite years of international mediation attempts.
Since fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh ended in 1994, Azerbaijan has used its burgeoning oil wealth to restore its military. Sarkisian’s main opponent, Raffi Hovanessian, has made accusations that Sarkisian is losing the arms race with Azerbaijan a main plank of his campaign.
The American-born Hovanessian, who was post-Soviet Armenia‘s first foreign minister, also contends that billions of dollars have disappeared from the state budget because of corruption under Sarkisian, and emphasizes the large number or Armenians leaving the country of 3 million to pursue better opportunities; the outward flow is estimated last year to have been about 3.3 people per 1,000 of the population.
But the criticisms appear to have gained little traction. Polling in early February by Gallup International foresaw Sarkisian getting 68 percent of the vote, with Hovanessian tallying 24 percent.
At the time of the poll, released Feb. 7, Paruir Airikian was running …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Armenia‘s National Security Agency says it has arrested two suspects in the shooting of a presidential candidate.
Paruir Airikian, one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 election, was shot and wounded by an unidentified assailant near his home in the Armenian capital a week ago.
The agency says the suspects arrested Thursday confessed to participating in the attack. It said in a statement Friday that investigators are still looking into motives behind the shooting, but gave no further details.
The attack on Airikian has thrown the election campaign into disarray, raising a possibility that the vote could be postponed.
Airikian initially said he would seek a 15-day delay of the election, but then announced he would not contest the date of the vote.
Doctors in Armenia have expressed concern about the condition of a presidential candidate who has been on a hunger strike outside the parliament building for more than two weeks.
Andrias Gukasian is protesting what he described as improper use of state resources by the incumbent, Serge Sarkisian.
Sarkisian, who is facing seven challengers, is expected to easily win a second term in the Feb. 18 vote. His campaign has rejected Gukasian’s allegations.
Gukasian, a political analyst, was examined by a medical team Wednesday, and the chief of the Armenian capital’s healthcare department said that doctors will permanently stay at his side as he refused to be hospitalized.
The election race was thrown into disarray Friday when another candidate, Paruir Airikian, was shot and wounded by an unidentified assailant.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
A doctor says that a candidate in Armenia‘s presidential election has been shot and wounded.
Ara Minasian, the chief doctor of the Yerevan Clinical Hospital, said Paruir Airikian was shot by an unidentified gunman in the Armenian capital just before midnight Thursday. He said Airikian was hospitalized with a gunshot wound and is in stable condition.
Airikian is one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 presidential vote, which incumbent Serge Sarkisian is expected to win. Airikian is expected to win only a few percent of the vote, according to opinion surveys.
Police were searching for the gunman.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
A doctor says that a candidate in Armenia‘s presidential election has been shot and wounded.
Ara Minasian, the chief doctor of the Yerevan Clinical Hospital, said Paruir Airikian was shot by an unidentified gunman in the Armenian capital just before midnight Thursday. He said Airikian was hospitalized with a gunshot wound and is in stable condition.
Airikian is one of eight candidates in the Feb. 18 presidential vote, which incumbent Serge Sarkisian is expected to win. Airikian is expected to win only a few percent of the vote, according to opinion surveys.
Police were searching for the gunman.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Azerbaijan‘s president has announced a sharp hike in military spending and again warned neighboring Armenia to pull out of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.
President Ilkham Aliyev said in remarks published Wednesday in state newspapers that this year’s defense budget will rise to $3.7 billion, up from $3 billion last year.
Annual military spending increases have taken place amid persisting tensions between Azerbaijan and fellow former Soviet republic Armenia. Border skirmishes are relatively common, but there has been no return to the full-out conflict of the 1990s.
Hundreds of people gathered Saturday in the capital, Baku, in protest at the death this month of an 18-year old conscript. Demonstrators said he died as a result of abuse.
In remarks addressed at the domestic opposition, Aliyev warned against smearing Azerbaijan‘s army.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
A passenger has given birth to her first child aboard an Armenian airline and named her daughter after one of the flight attendants who helped with the delivery.
The birth of the healthy baby occurred on Saturday, two hours before the long Armavia airline flight from Siberia was scheduled to land in Yerevan, Armenia‘s capital.
Flight attendant Asmik Gevondyan noticed that 31-year-old passenger Armina Babayan appeared to be in labor and organized the delivery conducted by several crew members.
“Even our male colleague, Grigor, did his part, bringing water and napkins,” Gevondyan told The Associated Press.
In gratitude the passenger, who had claimed to be 6-and-a-half-months pregnant during check-in, named the baby Asmik, local television reported.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
